# A plastic glass, an online paper, and other material contradictions **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 14, 2022, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-plastic-glass-an-online-paper-and-other-material-contradictions/962836 "2022-04-14T19:52:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![hibernicus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hibernicus/32/2802_2.png) [@hibernicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hibernicus)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2022, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-plastic-glass-an-online-paper-and-other-material-contradictions/962836/181 "2022-04-25T22:49:17Z")
I have a suggestion: in British English a band-aid is called a plaster, but is not made of plaster. It could be a fabric plaster for example. ---
**Author:** ![hibernicus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hibernicus/32/2802_2.png) [@hibernicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hibernicus)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2022, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-plastic-glass-an-online-paper-and-other-material-contradictions/962836/182 "2022-04-25T22:54:07Z")
What about the flint in a lighter? Usually made from ferrocerium rather than flint. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2022, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-plastic-glass-an-online-paper-and-other-material-contradictions/962836/183 "2022-04-26T02:08:39Z")
> [@hibernicus](#): > > I have a suggestion: in British English a band-aid is called a plaster, but is not made of plaster. It could be a fabric plaster for example. Chronos mentioned that back in post #78, but AFAICT a medical “plaster” or sticky bandage never was made of plaster. Both the band-aid-type plaster and the building material [apparently get their name from the ancient Greek medical term emplastron](https://www.etymonline.com/word/plaster) meaning a salve or ointment for external application (i.e., a substance to be spread or “plastered” on the skin). In medicine the word “plaster” got transferred to the bandage that held the plastering substance against the skin, and the Brits have continued to use it for a stuck-on bandage even when no salve or ointment is applied. In the building trades, on the other hand, the word still means the goopy stuff itself that gets spread on the surface. So it wouldn’t be valid to say “A plaster is no longer necessarily made from plaster”, because it never was. However, I think (subject to the arbitration of the OP) that you’ve struck lexicographic gold with your other suggestion of the flint in a lighter. Yes, the ferrocerium pyrophoric-alloy “flint” in a mechanical lighter is so called in reference to traditional flint-and-steel or similar firestrikers that were made of actual flint, so ISTM that it meets the criteria. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2022, 9:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-plastic-glass-an-online-paper-and-other-material-contradictions/962836/184 "2022-04-26T09:27:52Z")
A glass “stone” (in a Go set) ~Max ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2022, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-plastic-glass-an-online-paper-and-other-material-contradictions/962836/185 "2022-04-26T15:44:25Z")
It’s been a long time since I’ve heard someone wrongly use the word _linoleum_ when actually referring to vinyl flooring. Linoleum is made with linseed oil, and actually making a comeback, although using plastics in most cases. If it’s made with PVC, it’s not linoleum. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2022, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-plastic-glass-an-online-paper-and-other-material-contradictions/962836/186 "2022-04-26T18:29:33Z")
> [@Max\_S](#): > > A glass “stone” (in a Go set) I support this nomination: a Go stone is no longer necessarily made from stone. (In fact, it seems that the most prized traditional material is a sintered (new word!) stone composite, but alternative materials apparently include not only glass but shell, porcelan, plastic and melamine resin.) ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2022, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-plastic-glass-an-online-paper-and-other-material-contradictions/962836/187 "2022-04-26T20:18:58Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > And just to be super-nitpicky, I’m not sure that the previous example of “a fleece” works: not because there isn’t a more recent type of object created out of a different substance, as in “a polyester fleece”, but because it doesn’t refer to the same type of object. That’s exactly the kind of nitpickery I’m here for! 🙂 I thought that “a fleece” was sometimes made from fleece (the wool of a sheep). If it’s not, we gotta keep looking. But to be even more nitpicky, it looks like it might actually work, since the [_material_ isn’t necessarily wool](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fleece#examples): > [@](#): > > b **:** a soft bulky deep-piled knitted or woven fabric used chiefly for clothing > … > The mostly-cotton material is smooth against the skin, and the kangaroo pocket is lined with _fleece_ . So “a fleece” (the jacket) is made from “fleece” the material, even though neither has anything to do with wool. BUT THE ULTIMATE NITPICKERY: it doesn’t work, because even though wool is nowhere involved, _a_ fleece (jacket) is always made from fleece (the material). If your jacket contains no fleece, nobody is going to call it a fleece. So you’re right. In the end, DISQUALIFIED. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2022, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-plastic-glass-an-online-paper-and-other-material-contradictions/962836/188 "2022-04-26T20:20:56Z")
> [@hibernicus](#): > > What about the flint in a lighter? Usually made from ferrocerium rather than flint. I think this works; cool! [M-W backs you up](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/flint). > [@Max\_S](#): > > A glass “stone” (in a Go set) This one works too, I think. I know next to nothing about Go, but I’ll take your word for it. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2022, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-plastic-glass-an-online-paper-and-other-material-contradictions/962836/189 "2022-04-26T20:26:47Z")
Dominoes are also called “bones,” and historically were often made out of carved bones, but are usually plastic today. Disclaimer: I don’t know if you’d refer to an individual domino as “a bone.” ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2022, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-plastic-glass-an-online-paper-and-other-material-contradictions/962836/190 "2022-04-26T20:30:30Z")
There are actually remarkably few discrete objects named after the substance they’re made of rather than named for their resemblance to objects of a different substance, aren’t there? I was wrestling with all kinds of superficially plausible possibilities like “a darning egg” or “vegan cheese” or “steel wool”, but all of them are named after a different object or substance that they resemble, rather than named for the substance that they used to be made out of. This is harder than it looks. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2022, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-plastic-glass-an-online-paper-and-other-material-contradictions/962836/191 "2022-04-26T20:38:33Z")
It is definitely tricky! I like it being hard, as a few lovely examples are better than a laundry list of middling examples. ---
**Author:** ![anny\_m](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@anny\_m](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anny_m)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2022, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-plastic-glass-an-online-paper-and-other-material-contradictions/962836/192 "2022-04-26T21:24:12Z")
Bed linens and table linens are pretty rarely made of linen these days. The “bed” and “table” qualifiers aren’t necessarily used. If you go to Kohl’s or Bed Bath and Beyond to purchase bedsheets, you’ll find them in the linen department, and when you get home you’ll store them in the linen closet. I concede that you wouldn’t say “a linen is no longer made of linen.” However, when referring to spectacles you wouldn’t say “a glass is no longer made of glass,” either. And of course the kind of glass you drink from is often still made of glass today. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2022, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-plastic-glass-an-online-paper-and-other-material-contradictions/962836/193 "2022-04-29T02:49:22Z")
Remember those Magic Slates , where you pulled up the plastic and erased the writing? I recently saw some advertised as party favors and they were referred to as “slates” ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2022, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-plastic-glass-an-online-paper-and-other-material-contradictions/962836/194 "2022-04-30T01:22:05Z")
A Mr. Potato-head is not made of potato ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2022, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-plastic-glass-an-online-paper-and-other-material-contradictions/962836/195 "2022-04-30T02:02:31Z")
But they used to be. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/ICGrjmJouWA/hqdefault.jpg "Vintage Original Mr and Mrs Potato Head commercial 1960's") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICGrjmJouWA) ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2022, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-plastic-glass-an-online-paper-and-other-material-contradictions/962836/197 "2022-04-30T19:08:01Z")
I know - that’s why I thought of it. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2022, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-plastic-glass-an-online-paper-and-other-material-contradictions/962836/198 "2022-04-30T22:00:26Z")
How about brick? Brick is used as a term for the material as well as the actual brick. If that’s not acceptable, that also lead me to the realisation that not only are clay pigeons, as in the ones used in clay pigeon shooting, not made from pigeons, but they’re also not made from clay. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2022, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-plastic-glass-an-online-paper-and-other-material-contradictions/962836/199 "2022-04-30T23:34:14Z")
How about hamburger, which is made from beef. Etymology of the word is uncertain. It might be named after Hamburg, Germany or one of several cities named Hamburg in America. It is also possible that it was originally made from ham. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2022, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-plastic-glass-an-online-paper-and-other-material-contradictions/962836/200 "2022-05-02T21:53:18Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#): > > Brick is used as a term for the material as well as the actual brick. A brick is a building material, but it’s not made out of “brick.” You can have a clay brick, or a plastic brick, or even a brick of hash, but a “brick brick” isn’t a thing. > [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > How about hamburger, which is made from beef. Yeah, that’s a good one - “Hamburger,” meaning the sandwich, totally works, because we still refer to them as “hamburgers” even if they’re made with veggie patties instead of hamburger. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2022, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-plastic-glass-an-online-paper-and-other-material-contradictions/962836/201 "2022-05-02T22:03:52Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Yeah, that’s a good one - “Hamburger,” meaning the sandwich, totally works, because we still refer to them as “hamburgers” even if they’re made with veggie patties instead of hamburger. This is interesting, is that really common in the US? In contrast, the vegan burger at McDonald’s Germany is called “Veganburger TS”, not vegan hamburger (what’s the vegan burger at McD’s America called?). And in other independent burger restaurants, the vegan/vegetarian alternatives are always called vegan or veggie burger, not hamburger. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-plastic-glass-an-online-paper-and-other-material-contradictions/962836.md?page=9) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-plastic-glass-an-online-paper-and-other-material-contradictions/962836.md?page=11)